I am a marine ecologist who, before starting my PhD, worked in Montenegro, Albania, and Turkey researching the behaviour, acoustics, and habitat preference of various marine mammals. My PhD focuses on the acoustics and foraging of minke whales in order to contribute to their conservation within MPAs.
Minke whale acoustic & foraging ecology to underpin MPA-based conservation
North Atlantic minke whales are one of the most commonly seen cetacean species in Scottish waters, yet we know very little about their lives, including, knowing where they go once they have left UK and Irish waters each year. What we do know is that they face a range of anthropogenic threats, including entanglement in fishing gear, noise pollutions, collision risk with vessels and offshore devices. In addition to this, on a broader scale there are also concerns that minke whales are at risk from climate change.
The project aims to develop existing projects held in partnership between the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, Marine Science Scotland and Heriot Watt University. It will use existing visual and acoustic datasets to analyse whether the distribution of minke whales has changed over the last couple of decades. In addition to this, it will investigate anthropogenic noise sources and hotspots for noise within Scottish Marine Protected Areas, develop an understanding of minke whale diving and feeding and the associated acoustic behaviour for each of these and use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to develop a methodology for assessing and quantifying minke whale size and health. A greater comprehension of any long term changes in distribution as well as an increased understanding of other essential life behaviours such as feeding will provide decisionmakers with more information to facilitate the development of more effective conservation management plans.
Peer Reviewed Publications:
Glarou, M., Kerametsidis, G., Akkaya, A., Beqiri, K., Nikpaljevic, N., Awbery, T., Bakiu, R. and Geijer, C.K., 2022. Using off-the-shelf GPS loggers to assess co-occurrence between marine mammals and small-scale fisheries: a pilot study from the Mediterranean Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, pp.1-11.
Awbery, T., Akkaya, A., Lyne, P., Rudd, L., Hoogenstrijd, G., Nedelcu, M., Kniha, D., Erdoğan, M.A., Persad, C., Amaha Ozturk, A. and Öztürk, B., 2022. Spatial Distribution and Encounter Rates of Delphinids and Deep Diving Cetaceans in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea of Turkey and the extent of overlap with areas of dense marine traffic. Frontiers in Marine Science, p.739.
Rudd, L.E., Awbery, T., Waller, R., Crowe, M., Bauer, J., Jacquemart, A., Nikpaljevic, N. and Akkaya, A., 2022. The effect of commercial and artisanal fishing practices on the behavioral budget of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Montenegro, South Adriatic Sea. Marine Mammal Science.
Awbery, T., Akkaya, A., Smith, C.C., Bradley, S., Hawkins, L., Terpering, T., Repeta, H., Hanley, N., Russel, A., Rudd, L. and Yıldırım, B., 2021, October. Combining Data Sources to Understand the Fine-Scale Distribution and Encounter Rates of Common Dolphins Delphius delphis in one of the busiest waterways in the world, the Istanbul Strait. In 2021 International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea; Learning to Measure Sea Health Parameters (MetroSea) (pp. 134-138). IEEE.
Akkaya, A., Ruegg, N., Awbery, T., Velez, N., Goossens, C., Papadopoulo, K. and Abbiss, L., 2021, October. Bottlenose dolphins of Montenegro: Abundance Estimation and Residency Patterns. In 2021 International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea; Learning to Measure Sea Health Parameters (MetroSea) (pp. 100-104). IEEE.
McGuinness, S., White, E., Awbery, T., Rudd, L., Brouwer, S. and Akkaya, A., 2021, October. The decline of common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) presence and group size in Montenegrin waters. In 2021 International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea; Learning to Measure Sea Health Parameters (MetroSea) (pp. 105-110). IEEE.
Stephens, G., Bas, A.A., Hardy, J., Awbery, T., Rudd, L., Abbiss, L., Araç, N. and Lyne, P., 2021. Sightings and stranding reports of Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in the Levantine Sea, with recent sightings from Turkey. J. Cetacean Res. Manage., 22(1), pp.55-60.
Awbery, T., and Akkaya, A., 2020. A Worrying Decline in the Presence of Bottlenose Dolphins in Montenegro & the Importance of Citizen Science During COVID-19, ACCOBAMS’ FINS Journal, 10.
Akkaya, A., Awbery, T., Lyne, P., Cipriano, G., Maglietta, R., Renò, V., Fanizza, C., Carlucci, R., 2020. Comparison of acoustic patterns recorded for the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Northern Ionian Sea (Central Mediterranean Sea) and in the North-western Levantine Sea (Eastern Mediterranean Sea), paper presented to 2020 IMEKO TC-19 International Workshop on Metrology for the Sea, Naples, Italy, October 5-7, 2020.
Akkaya, A., Lyne, P., Schulz, X., Awbery, T., Capitain, S., Rosell, B.F., Yıldırım, B., İlkılınç, C., Relva, J.V., Clark, H. and van Walsum, L., 2020. Preliminary results of cetacean sightings in the eastern Mediterranean Sea of Turkey. Journal of the Black Sea/Mediterranean Environment, 26(1).
Clarkson, J., Christiansen, F., Awbery, T., Abbiss, L., Nikpaljevic, N. and Akkaya, A., 2020. Non-targeted tourism affects the behavioural budgets of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in the South Adriatic (Montenegro). Marine Ecology Progress Series, 638, pp.165-176.
Conference talks:
Awbery, T., Rudd, L. and Akkaya, A., 2021. In: 5th Conference on Cetacean Conservation in South Mediterranean Countries. Assessing the Overlap of Fishing and Bottlenose Dolphins in an Understudied Region of the Mediterranean.
Awbery, T., Akkaya, A. 2019. Bottlenose dolphins of Turkey – from the unknown to the known. World Marine Mammals Conference, 8th December 2019, Barcelona
Poster presentations:
Awbery, T., Akkaya, A., Clark, H., Nikpaljevic, N., Abbiss, L., Clarkson, J., Hardy, J., Beqiri, K., Konomi, A., Rudd, L., Basmaci, M., Bakiu, R. The Identification of Critical Habitats for Cetaceans in the Southern Adriatic Sea. [Poster] World Marine Mammal Conference. 9th-12th December 2019, Barcelona.
Basmaci, M., Akkaya, A., Awbery, T., Stephens, G., Nikpaljevic, N., Abbiss, L., Clarkson, J., Dolphins of Montenegro – walk the walk, talk the talk. [Poster] World Marine Mammal Conference. 9th-12th December 2019, Barcelona.
Akkaya, A., Gordon, J., Lyne, P., Yıldırım, B., Eleman, A., Ilkilinc, C., Ulusoy, E., Kurt, M., Awbery, T., 2019. From Small Cetaceans to the Great Whales of the East. [Poster] World Marine Mammal Conference. 9th-12th December 2019, Barcelona.
Awbery, T., Lyne, P., Abbiss, L., Clark, H., Nikpaljevic, N., Bakiu., R, Beqiri, K., Konomi, A., Todorović S., Basmaci, M., Clarkson, J., Rudd., L, Guimard, E., Van Walsum, L., Akkaya, A. The Delineation of Critical Habitats for the Conservation of Cetaceans in Three Understudied Areas of the Mediterranean. [Poster] 7th Meeting of the Parties to ACCOBAMS. 5th-8th November 2019, Istanbul.
Contact details:
E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @AwberyTim
Research Gate: www.researchgate.net/profile/Tim-Awbery-3